Crime and Punishment

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St. Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law.

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Publisher's Summary

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St. Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.

Although full of desriptions of poverty and depression I found this to be quite an absorbing tale. A lot of the book deals with lengthy thoughts and conversations of the characters and sometimes you wonder what the point is. This is one of the classics I missed reading when I was younger and wanted to catch up on and I'm glad I started it. I find myself wanting to return to it after I put it down.

The longest book I have ever read in the shortest time was a 400 page book by W.C. Baer and I read it in one day. But it is wrong to compare a genre novel to a literary monster such as Crime and Punishment, a book that is so real and so scary in some moments (I became a bit paranoid when Raskolnikov murdered the pawnbroker, feeling the axe in my chest, looking around my room for him, checking my doors) that to study it is to study the psychology of most murderers. Yet, it took me 4 tries to stay with the book. I guess it's because the book spends so much time on Raskonikov's mental state but the reader, he gives you so many distinctive voices, does female characters very good and perfected the imagery people develop about these characters concerning how they would sound. I had to buy this because even though I finished the book in eight months (Paradise Lost was an easier read, if that's believable), the intensity of the story give reasons to read again and again. Do not hesitate to buy this. Great.

Obviously, the audiobook is a little long for most in today's fast-paced world. But, I found the depth and detailed descriptions of the hearts and thoughts of the key characters surprizingly enjoyable. The reader was very good, and he added depth to the story by the way he portrayed the various personalities with slight variations of speech. I would highly recommend this book for a good, long, enjoyable listen. If you lose track of the characters, just catch up by reviewing what's going on using one of the many available 'cliff notes' online.

This was a strange book. The style is told from the first person and the main character has serious mental issues...but I guess that is the point of the book. This was good book but a little hard to follow at times due to the Russian names. This is a serious read about the subject of murder, the mind and the personal anguish of the main character. Not light listening.

Yes, I most definetly would recommend this audiobook to a friend or even enemy. That's how good it is.

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was the Inspector. I found him to be a calm and crafty man. Who is full of wisdom that can only be learned through personal experience. I found hm to be the most interesting character in the whole story.

Which character – as performed by Alex Jennings – was your favorite?

The Inspector and the protagonist were both fully brought to bloom by the narrator. I formed a clear visual picture of both characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The criminal mind has doubts at times.

Any additional comments?

I read Crime and Punishment a few years ago, and still find it to be the greatest book I have ever read. Now that I have heard the audio book version I can honestly say that I was correct in my assesment of the book. It is s gem of an audio book.

First of all, I have to say - this is my favorite book of all time, so I was interested to see what the audiobook version was like. I was surprised at how good it was..hearing the story helped me realize some things I hadn't really caught onto, even though I've read the book a number of times.
However, the last 20 minutes or so of the book are horrible - the narrator changes his voice to one of the other characters and goes on and on for some time...I just couldn't listen to it, it was so annoying. I highly recommend this audiobook though, especially if you are intimidated by Dostoevsky - as it is pretty easy to follow, and the story is fantastic.

This abridged version was a very good listen. The story is timeless, yet gives an interesting view of 19th century St. Petersburg. The narrator did a great job, although his British accent (made Cockney for the rougher characters) was a bit disconcerting for this American reading a book about Russians.

It makes me wonder what the other 20 hours in the full version contained, and whether it would have been worth it. But then again, my short attention span has never made it past the beginning of a Dostoevsky novel, so I probably made the right choice.

I found this book to drag on a bit. Also, the author does a good job of not only convincing the reader of the main character's apathy, but inspires some towards him as well. Plot twist out of left field with virtually no foreshadowing (nice on occasion... but random here). Very hard to listen to in one sitting.
The punishment seemed more self-induced by the main character than the penile system.

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